Variations on the same theme

Very quickly, just to let you guys know: I ordered the tickets for Serenity.
Woohoo! We'll be going, people. We being greenie_breizh, the_swordman and heikki_cheren. And me, of course. And I
hope to see grimma there (sorry, not sure about your exact username anymore).
Announced guests so far are Alan, Jewel, Morena, Summer and Nathan. Again, I
have to say, woohoo!

For very quick news of me: still making icons like mad (must be a substitute for
something...), only have one last chapter to go on the Steve episode for Gaia,
and I've finally managed to read Billy's Best Devil thanks to the clever help
of heikki_cheren! I'll probably be rereading it a few times
alright. It's angsty in just the right way, and the end is absolutely perfect.
I'm looking forward to the next part. A lot. (And it must be unhealthy for me
to enjoy RPS so much. Except it's so much more than RPS.) And to share the
cleverness that allowed me to get it: if you want to send me something, zip it
first. That way the filters can't read what's in it and pick up words they
don't want me to come in contact with. We shall prevail!

While speaking of humans vs. machines, Nick Stahl is much better in Carnivale
than in T3, no matter that he acts with the lovely Claire (much better in say,
My So-Called Life anyway). What did I expect?

Hopefully this will reach you people, I'm giving another chance to this posting
by e-mail feature, since it's the only way for me to post from here at the
school. As if LJ contained offensive material,
frankly... This does mean that I haven't yet been able to check you
guys' possible comments, I need to go back to the internet cafe to do that.

Anyway. Just wanted to keep you all updated on how well things are going here.
Saturday was a night out in Manchester with the guys and the_swordman - nice to see you again, stud, despite the crappiness of
the bar, and we've asked some of the younger teachers here for advice on where
to go, next time'll be better. Lessons are going well, we're all slowly
settling in. I'm happy to report that Etienne (other French assistant) has read
some of my shorter works, both original and fanfiction, and he liked it. Yay! He
keeps badgering me about finishing a novel, though. Rather reminds me of
someone... ;)

On the writing front, I'm a bit stuck on the Firefly crossover, so my muses have
reverted to working for (and this is gonna be making a few happy girls) Steve!
Yes, Gaia's next episode is underway. I've got two fifths of it done. And I
apologise in advance to anyone who might actually know stuff about swing music,
because I'm improvising as I go! I'll have my father proof-read it before I
publish it, though, but swing isn't his area of expertise. And twixou, rejoice, Ian appears in that episode and his character
is not at all influenced by his role in Lost, nope ma'am.

I do hope you're all doing all right. Drop me a line on my e-mail if you want me
to get back to you quickly... or just give me some news that, believe me, I'd
love to have.

Gakked from the extremely talented cgwriting:




Ye gods, the horror! Couldn't I get - no, not about to ask for either Spike or Angel - I don't know, Holden? *sends love to Jonathan Woodward* Or if the gods were in the mood to be gracious, Darla? No, it had to be that guy there. The horror...

Am now a good 4k words into my Icelandic/fairy story. Don't know whether it's good or not. Want to be done with at least the first part before asking, with big puppy eyes and a trembling lower lip, greenie_breizh to read it. I expect one more night of writing and that'll be achieved. Yay! Svana, the narrator, is shaping up into a round character, not at all Mary-Sueish, and it makes me fairly happy. However, since she is a child in that first part, it's quite easy to keep her off the MS path. I'll need to be very wary when writing the rest of it. Have yet to decide whether said "rest" will be one or two more parts.

Also gave another look at Collion, which I had much abandoned these days, and wrote a small scene for it. I want this fic to be good. I need to go through what I already wrote and rework on it, big time. Wanting to produce quality work is tasking, really, but rather that than publish something-you-could-have-done-better.

Watched Shindig again last night. Atherton is such a jerk, it's delightful. I do wish I could have made him an Immortal too, but alas, his wounds do not quite seem to be healing. Such a shame. It would have been so very amusing to have him and the Serenity crew have to work together if they wanted to survive. I'll have to make do with the other captain from Out of gas.

Now, am off to cook for the lil family.

Gakked from houses7177:






What Type of Villain are You?

mutedfaith.com.



Moriarti, now I can't help picture him like in Young Sherlock Holmes, a fairly entertaining movie with a delightful villain. Oh yes. (Makes me think, yesterday I had a look at a few Jude Law galleries - the word scrumptious came to mind (and I never use that word). I still can't believe how downright ugly he was in Road to Perdition. Guy's a v. good actor.)

Anyway. Wanted to read more OLS, but I put the Mononoke-Hime soundtrack on and it's tickling the muses for my fairy-related original story. Have just spent some time looking for Icelandic names, since the list I'd made is on Kaylee. Hopefully I'll get some of the first scene down tonight (sorry, heikki_cheren, that does mean I'm not writing those K'Immies just yet - I don't want to ignore those muses for fear they ignore me later on). Just those names are enough to tickle my fancy... Lilja, Valdís, Brynjólfur, Hrafn, and so many others.

Hmm, I wonder whether I have what it takes to type those letters the Icelandic use for the two "th" sounds.

First and foremost:

Happy birthday, pee_wai!

Then: last day in Iceland, which will hopefully get me much elf-related knowledge. The "Irish" story I had in the making will probably be transferred to Iceland, if I can find enough information and such. The elves I'll depict will be inspired from the myths of both countries anyway.

From tomorrow on to Tuesday, there'll be no internet connection for me. Tuesday will see me back in Reims for just a few days, before I head back to Paris for a convention on TV shows, which greenie_breizh and I will take part in. We'll be in a panel discussing Buffy. Yay! Big thanks to Antoine. Hopefully the whole thing will be quite good - and I'll finally get a look at Nip/Tuck.

I've entered a Tertiary PotC Character Ficathon, am anxiously waiting to know what I'll get to write. I also need to finish a Willow/Tara ficlet for miss_kao and my Wat/Kate is still waiting for me to have a stroke of genius. Not happening any time soon. The life of an author is a hard one... *eye roll* Who am I kidding? I love this.

Things are looking decreasingly good about Iceland. I feel a strong urge to resort to all the Farscape curses I know (okay, granted, not all that many, but still). I filed a request for a passport yesterday - they were missing something in the file! But no, they couldn't have told me yesterday, that would have meant my file would have been complete after all. *sigh*

I have very, very little hope left. Thanks, Joss, mate. Sometimes I just plain hate chance.

On the good side, my brother reviewed The tear of a warrior, and a hell of an interesting, challenging review it was.

( Spoilers on The tear of a warrior and reflections on writing. )

On another topic altogether, found another scarred man I like - or rather, liked a whole good deal when I was a kid: Captain Harlock! I'm not sure he qualifies, since I'm very much not obsessed with him anymore. But he might have started it all.

Also finished watching Cowboy Bebop. I have to say, I actually liked Ed by the end, which I did not think would happen. She must be quite a lot of fun to write! That show is incredibly good. They have amazing ideas, fascinating, complex characters, and that soundtrack... that soundtrack. (And before any of you remarks that Jet has a scar, yes, I know. And I love his character. But I'm not obsessed with him. Yet. Might come, though. Who knows. We'll see after I write him, if I ever do.)

For some reason, I have a strong urge to do capoeira again. Something that requires physical effort, but also focus. Something physical on which I can concentrate, really, pour myself into and stop being anything but the movement for a while.

I don't suppose there's anyone out there that could beta-read an "A Knight's Tale" fanfiction? One that is *not* slash, mind you?

How sad is it that the only A Knight's Tale fiction archive I could find on the net is slash? I don't mind slash - hell, I read slash, I enjoy slash, good slash in both cases of course, I spent a great part of the day today hesitating between trying myself at some Sparrington or doing that Kate/Wat I finalled settled on doing - I just find it sad that there seems to be nowhere where I can archive this fic of mine when I'm finished, let alone *read* other fics of the same kind. I will however sort through those slash fics, and hopefully find something that is worth reading.

Hell, if one of the cut scenes had not shown Chaucer to be 1) married, and 2) very happily so, I would have slashed him myself, though in an "unrequited love" way, and thus a "not getting any" way, or at least not with the one he so dearly wished to get it on with. Might still do it one of these days, I'd need to give it more thought. I just love the character so, hard to write though he might turn out to be. (And I apologise in advance to fans of the *actual* Chaucer out there. I don't know anything about the real man (does *any*one?), apart from having read the Wife of Bath's Tale, and I'm all with the character here. Just blame it on Paul Bettany. Guy's too good not to make me obsessed.)

Anyway, to come back to my point: again, I don't suppose there's anyone out there that could beta-read an "A Knight's Tale" fanfiction? I'm beginning to fear I'm the only one fascinated with those characters in a non "let's slash them" way. Wat and Kate were just begging to be written about! I'm only sad I could not write Edward in - Chaucer and Germaine each had their cameo, but writing him in would have been pointless and simply for the sake of it, so I refrained (note to self: one more reason to write that Chaucer fic).

If anyone is, I'd be quite grateful. This fic might all turn out to be one huge piece of shite, and I'd rather I was told that much than I went ahead and published it without having a clue.

Anyway, I'm off to write the third and last part.

This is positively unhealthy. I'm growing obsessed with Vicious. *points at the new icon* Loving characters like Edward (from AB) or Lucius (from HP) is all good and well, but Vicious? This is me reaching another level of insanity.

It's all the more frustrating that this incredibly good fic is being written about his origins, as well as Spike's... and I want more. Desperately so. The psychology of it is simply amazing, the style flows very well, the usual clichés are avoided... I'm impressed. Here's for any and all Cowboy Bebop fan out there: Prelude. If you browse through that site, I also recommend After the Nova, though also a WIP, which is a take on what happens after the finale. But really, my love goes to Prelude, which is as good a piece of work as you can find. While the author's take on Spike is probably not the most original ever, it is still endearing and subtle, and their work on Vicious reels you in and does not let you go.

That being said, it leaves me very little room to vent my Vicious obsession, aka write more fiction about him. The tear of a warrior was hardly about him, since the Vicious we saw in that was through the eyes of a besotted Gren. I need to write him out of my system. Hopefully, I'll have an epiphany, but right now my muses are made shy when faced with the genius behind Prelude. I should let it all cool down and see what comes to me in a few days' time.

Well, greenie_breizh is gone back home. I'll be joining her there on Tuesday, and I have approximately a ton of things to do in the meanwhile. Watch some DVDs, for starters, including O Brother (still haven't seen it!) and Jurassic Park (am finally going to see it in English! Hopefully Ian Malcolm will be just as enjoyable.). I have some Farscape to watch in English too, while I'm at it, among which the cartoon episode. I'm in for a laugh.

And if I find myself a couple free hours, there'll be a second viewing of Mononoke Hime. Bought myself the soundtrack yesterday, been listening to it non stop. It's sparking muses, too.

Oh, and houses7177 really liked Harshness, cold and deceit, the birthday fic I wrote for her. That made my day yesterday, though I haven't had time to respond to her reply. I was just ecstatic. I'd been so anxious about it, since what she writes is so very good... Not to mention that my AB books are very much not at home and that I was quite worried that I might be twisting Edward to my wishes/needs. Apparently not. Yay! I'm actually really grateful for this whole birthday fic cgwriting started, because I don't think I would have ever written this particular fic if it hadn't been for it. houses had a list of characters she liked, and Narcissa and Edward basically jumped out at me while I was looking it over. Or, more characteristically, Narcissa raised an eyebrow at me and Edward made a very discreet hand motion, face betraying nothing. I think they work wonderfully together.

Besides, it got me to write about all the Malfoys, and that's always something I love. (The only actor who has signed up for OotP, according to imdb, is Jason. There'll be at least that reason to go see the movie. His Lucius is absolutely magnificent, and rather scary too, in a sends-shivers-down-your-spine way. In a very human way, really. All hail to Jason.) I even threw some Zabini in there - couldn't help myself, and it did work with the story, it wasn't just a pointless cameo. Those Slytherins are so very fascinating to write.

Anyway. I've also been thinking about the way I write, which I think has really evolved these past few months. In a very good way. I've completely gone past the stage of "let's get so and so together" - not that I don't write those fics anymore, just that when I do, which is no longer a requisite, it's not just about that. I feel quite good about some of my recent productions, and those I feel most good about, surprisingly, don't really pair up anybody: A Flight of Fancy, Thou Liv'st forever, and now Harshness, cold and deceit.

I'll need to use those few days on my own to really plan what I'm going to write next. I do need to go over and rewrite most of Out of Memory and Time, which I will post on the wadingpool to make it as good as possible as I go. I also have to work on the next episode of Gaia (http://cometogaia.free.fr/), focusing on Steve - title unknown as of now, probably something music-related. There's another original project of mine that needs working on, untitled as well for the moment, about yet again homosexuality and the way to fit in the world. For those of you who know of my obsession for the then unknown hotness that belonged to one of Buffy's former boyfriends, the kid's name is Fab. *wicked smirk*

Those are the most "urgent," I suppose. I have been attacked by several plot bunnies lately, but I'm doing a good job filing them away for later use, so far. Let's just hope they'll keep being that easy to deflect for a while.

Anyway, here's Harshness, cold and deceit. For you BR-people who haven't read AB, just in case you wanna give it a try, let me just explain very quickly what you need to know: the Anitaverse happens nowadays, only the supernatural is part of everyday life. The US is the first country to grant vampires civil rights, and weres of all sorts (there aren't just wolves, but also leopards, lions, swans, etc - and one of my favourites, rats) are being discriminated against. Edward is a bounty hunter, he likes to take out the "monsters" (weres and vamps, really). He's a cold-blooded killer with quite a personality disorder. He can slip as effortlessly into his Death persona (total absence of emotion) as into his Ted persona (Ted Forrester, one of his identities, lives in New Mexico, has a very Southern accent, wears a cowboy hat, can be quite charming and is actually engaged to a New Age woman called Donna, who has two kids - it even seems as if Ted loves her and her kids). Edward's a bit of an enigma, since very little is known about his past, and he's very hard to figure out. There, I think you're good now.

(Oh, and twixou, to shamelessly pique your interest: personally, I have this fantasy of mine where Edward is just Sark in a few years' time. I'm sure an older David would be perfect for the role, but even as far as characterisation is concerned, Sark could have become Edward in the right circumstances.)


( Harshness, cold and deceit )

Ha! I finished one of the two birthday fics I'm working on. Only have to get it beta'ed, now. Hopefully it doesn't suck too much! I really hope I'll be able to finish the second one in time, too. Otherwise I'll just post the beginning on time - though I really don't like doing that. Posting any part of a fic before it's finished. You never know when you'll want to go back on it to have it better suit what happens later. Besides, it saved me from posting some quite, quite bad fiction. Tapping, for one thing, and OMT. I haven't given up on either of them, I simply need to go through them all over again.

To go back to that second birthday fic, I know exactly where I want to go. It's just not something I've ever written before and I'm doubtful I can pull it off easily, and in such a short amount of time. I'll see.

Anyway. Here's chapter five of FoF.


( Chapter Five: Still the guns and stow 'em )